Walking the Daisies

The Rocking the Daisies music festival is an event that is highly regarded among all music enthusiasts in South Africa. Rocking the Daisies 2013 is set to be bigger and better with some top international and local muso's taking the stage and playing to a venue that will hold a crowd of up to 15 000 rockers and rollers.

There are other lesser-known events that are associated with the music festival such as the Walking the Daisies environmental hike. Walking the Daisies is an annual two day environmental hike spanning, 50kms from Cape Town to Darling.

The hike started in 2008, when botanist Greg Nicolson returned from a 28 day, 700km hike from Namibia to Cape Town to research endangered wildflower species along the N7 road reserve. He then decided to trek back up the coast for another 50km to Rocking the Daisies and was joined by his friend and founder of Culturetalent, Nathan Daniel Heller. Walking the Daisies has grown into a widely acclaimed event that supports the festival's sentiments towards promoting positive environmental action, awareness and protection. With the support of Pick n Pay and Rocking the Daisies, Culturetalent developed the initiative into a group experience and Walking the Daisies grew to 20 walkers in 2009, 50 in 2010, and 100 in 2011 and 2012. Now in 2013 the walk can host up to 200 lucky applicants!

The hike will begin on the morning of 3 October 2013, from Blouberg beach just north of Cape Town to an overnight camp at Silwerstroomstrand. It then continues inland on the second day all the way to the festival grounds on Cloof Wine Estate just outside Darling, arriving at Rocking the Daisies before sunset on Friday the 4th of October.

On day one, walkers will enjoy an up-close experience of the coastline including a beach cleanup and gentle stroll along jeep tracks through the private coastal land. This ends in a festive overnight beach camp with fun activities such as swimming, drumming and yoga, followed by good food and live entertainment around the camp fire, before a much needed rest in tented accommodation.

On day two, after a brisk morning warm up and healthy breakfast the walk will move along the road reserve to Mamre where walkers get to plant trees with the local community and enjoy hiking through pristine wildflower fields, before arriving at the festival’s main stage in time for a great weekend of festivities.